CTRI Yahoo Groups Future

Hi Gang! The CTRI Yahoo Groups site we enjoyed for many years has seen little use since the start up of our new website with its much greater functionality and appearance. (Thank you Ed!)

The future of the Yahoo site is in your hands! Soon we will decide its fate and your comments are requested. But for now, we are in need of a new owner for the yahoo site since the loss of our friend Ernie, N1SW a couple of year ago. I’ve posted a poll on the yahoo site for members to make their selection among a few moderators who volunteered for the position. The new owner will be able to make the necessary change decided by our discussion and  a vote to be proposed at the next meeting on November 12. Please login to yahoo and make your choice! The final tally selection will be forwarded to the executive at yahoo who can implement the change.

Thanks!

John, W1AN

Operation ARRL 10-Meter Contest: December 10 – 11, 2011

Operation ARRL 10-Meter Contest: December 10 – 11, 2011

Attention all CTRI members: “Operation NEQP” last May was very successful in getting the club membership to pull together to meet the 1 million point objective. It has spawned talk of another targeted contest for a super club effort. In response, your club Contest Manager is calling on the membership to focus on the ARRL 10-Meter Contest, December 10 – 11 (starts 0000 UTC Saturday and ends 2359 UTC Sunday).
Why the 10-meter Contest? Lotsa reasons! With the upswing in the sunspot cycle, 10 meters is becoming a very good DX band. It’s open most days to Europe and JA early in the evenings and stateside all day. QSOs are plentiful and easy to make. Ten meters is well known for its ability to support QSOs with low power to a wet noodle. It’s a great band for neophytes to get their feet wet in contesting.
What’s CTRI’s history in this contest? CTRI had 7 entries last year: W1WBB, K3IU, NG1G, KS1J, W1XX, KA1GEU, and W1AN with a club aggregate score of 218,720 points; in 2009 – 7 entries with 129K points; and 2008 – 5 entries with 141K points. Not really great scores in non-optimum conditions. Conditions should be much better this year.
What’s the goal? It’s tempting to again make the goal 1 million points as in NEQP. But with the recent resurgence of 10 meter propagation, that may be very easily met. Our goal should be to get as many club members QRV for the maximum club score possible.
“I don’t operate CW….or….I don’t have a big station….or….I don’t have a 10-meter antenna….or….I don’t have a station….or….I haven’t operated in a contest before.” The 10 Meter Contest is ideal in responding positively to all those excuses. In a nutshell, you can operate categories for phone, CW, or both…low power, high power or QRP. You can work the world with a very modest station. If you are station-less, no doubt CTRI will run one or more multis that will welcome you. It’s the perfect contest to begin or continue to hone your contesting skills. No antenna? Simple, make a quickee 10 meter dipole with 16 ½ feet of wire.
Contest essentials.
[1] Exchange = RS(T) and state. VEs = RS(T) and province. XEs = RS(T) and state. DX = RS(T) and serial # starting with 001.
[2] Operate no more than 36 hours. No spotting assistance for single ops.
[3] CW operation only below 28.3 MHz.
[4] You can work the same station once each on CW and phone.
[5] See the rules for QSO points, multipliers and final score.
Where do I get complete rules? http://www.arrl.org/contests. This will be discussed at
the November 12 meeting with rules’ handouts. This early announcement is intended to help you get fully prepared in advance.
Will you commit to operate? As the club’s Contest Manager, I respectfully request that you let me know that you are committed to this venture with your CTRI brethren. You can do so at the November meeting or e-mail me at: w1xx [at] cox [dot] net. Good luck and have fun! 73!

— John Lindholm, W1XX
CTRI Contest Manager

Championship Update Info

Seems I didn’t read the “Comments” section of the W1DX report for the RTTY contest and thus missed the following FB scores:  K3IU, KS1J, KI1G.  Sorry, fellas, we’ll update the spread sheet the next time around.  73!

 

— John, W1XX

 

PS:  Small update on the 160 vertical:  Simply tightening up the T wires by pulling the support ropes down only two feet on each side, dropped the resonant frequency by 20 KHz to 1853…closer to the target of about 1825.  I find it surprising that making the T wires  just a tad more horizontal (less droop) made such a significant change.  I may tighten them up just bit more to see what happens.  Bottom line:  it’s a beautiful thing!

A Tale of Three Winches

No, Ed, that’s three winches not wenches that were used to raise the W1XX 160 Meter Vertical from the dead…SUCCESSFULLY!!  TNX to a great club turnout for the meeting and to assist with the antenna raising in South County.  It was a total group effort with the heavy lifters (NG1G and W1CTN), winch crankers, spotters, rope untanglers, screamers, etc….a fine job indeed.  Top Band conditions were not particularly good this mornming at SR, but the first contact was with T32C who was not hearing anyone very well. But we got through.  SWR is less than 2:1 from below 1800 to 1975 (!)…with the peak resonant frequency of 1:1 at 1880 — a little higher than I would like but will work just fine.  I may do a little adjustment at the base or tighen up the top loading wires a bit to drop the resonant frequency down just a tad.  It seems a good time was had by all.  TNX to CTRI for its usual great effort — which is much appreciated.   Can you post some pix, Ed?  73!!

— John, W1XX

 

CQ WW SSB

Hi guys,

I thought I would post another plea for operators during next weekend’s CQ WW SSB contest. If interested please get with John, W1AN. Maybe he can work out some times when the cadets will be available and in need of some guidance.

73,

Pat, NG1G

WP4U on 10M

Guys, Carlos, WP4U is on 10M right now, 28.566 coming in 59++. He’s running a pile but I got to talk to him for a few minutes. I’m sure he’d appreciate other club members giving him a call if you can.

73,

Pat, NG1G

A PROPOSAL FOR USA 40 METER PHONE BAND EXPANSION

A PROPOSAL FOR USA 40 METER PHONE BAND EXPANSION

 

To:  ARRL New England Division Director

 

From:  CTRI Contest Group

 

Background:  The successful elimination of the vast majority of foreign broadcast in the 40 meter segment of 7100 – 7200 has been a very welcome development for day-to-day SSB DXing and casual ragchews.  There has been an unintended consequence to contesting however – not all good – which dominoes to impact negatively on non-contesters as well.

 

The most noticeable effect has been during DX phone contests.  Previous to a couple of years ago, foreign broadcast dominated the 7100 – 7200 KHz segment so that split operation ruled the day.  DX stations would call CQ below 7100 and listen for US stations in whatever holes they could locate above 7125.  It was aggravating to say the least when the DX station would only listen on his own transmit frequency.  This would promote violations by US stations who would call (and sometimes work) the DX station out-of-band or would say “listen up.”  Both are violations.  Some stations were known to send on CW ‘UP” or “USA” which sometimes worked.

 

With foreign broadcast vacating the 7100 – 7200 segment, split operation has for all intense and purposes has now gone away with the DX stations now working the USA “on frequency” between 7125 and 7200.  This has created a new problem.  With the big multi DX stations plus the big USA multi stations all calling CQ in the 75 KHz segment, there is virtually nowhere for the more modest and even well equipped USA station to find a free run frequency to work more modestly equipped DX stations.  The band is incredibly overcrowded. It’s almost worse than when one had to contend with the broadcast stations. Seventy-five kilohertz is not nearly enough room to accommodate the activity.

 

Band Breakdown:  Here is the breakdown of the percentage of band available for phone operation compared to the entire band available per license class.  Note that it is understood that CW operation is permitted throughout the entire bands cited but the percentage is based on the amount of band where CW/digital is normally used.

 

80M     E = 80%

            A = 80%

            G = 72.7 %

 

20M     E = 57%

            A = 58%

            G = 50%

 

17M     EAG = 60%

 

15M     E = 55.6%

            A = 56%

            G = 50%

 

12M     EAG = 58%

 

10M     EAG = 57%

 

40 Meter Breakdown:  Forty meters is a bit more complicated in that foreign broadcast still is a problem from 7200 to 7300.  Here’s the percentage using the ratio as above.  The Advanced ratio appears better than Extra only because their phone privilege is the same as Extra but they do not have access to the bottom 25 KHz for CW – thus the whole pie is smaller.

 

40M     E = 58%

            A = 63.6%

            G = 55%

The rub comes during DX contesting because for the most part operation is below 7200 thus effectively eliminating 100 KHz of spectrum because of foreign broadcast. True, stations do try to sneak in between heterodynes of foreign broadcast stations with some success.  Calculating a percentage of the mostly usable band – that is eliminating the top 100 KHz – the story is telling:

 

40M     E = 37.5%

            A = 42.8%

            G = 20%

The modest to even well equipped Extra/Advanced Class USA station has a huge QRM obstacle to overcome with only 75 KHz of space to maneuver successfully. Actually USA Extra/Advanced Class stations may only operate LSB phone as low as 7128 to allow for sidebands to stay in the band.  Unfortunately, not everyone understands this, as it is not unusual for a DX station in a phone DX contest to receive answers from US stations while calling CQ on say 7125.  Oh for the days of ARRL Official Observers and FCC “pink slips” to invoke contest disqualification.  

 

What’s the average of spectrum allocated to phone operation?  It appears that using the 20, 17, 15, 12, and 10 meter bands as a guide, the percentage of spectrum allocated to phone operation is about 57 or 58 %.  Eighty meters seems a bit of an anomaly as the percentage is considerably higher.  Remember that it was quite a surprise when the FCC

expanded phone all the way down to 3600.  Far less was proposed and expected. 

 

Forty meters is the real problem especially during DX contests – exacerbated by foreign broadcast in the 7200 – 7300 segment.   

 

What’s going on between 7100 and 7125?  Extensive monitoring day-to day and during contests subjectively reveals that this segment is underutilized.  Few DX stations operate there on a day-to-day basis. During DX phone contests, few DX stations operate there.  During RTTY contests, most of the operation is below 7100. During CW DX contests, there is some activity above 7100 but mostly below.

 

The proposal:  Expand USA phone operation to 7100 for Extras and Advanced.  Forty meters will continue to be a QRM problem during contests no matter what.  But expanding USA Extra and Advanced Class phone privileges to 7100 would be a significant improvement.  Presumably General Class operators would then be allowed to operate from 7150 KHz instead of 7175 as presently. This is how the percentages would then break out with the first number based on the whole band and the second based on not considering the top 100 KHz of foreign broadcast dominated spectrum:

 

E = 66.6%/50%

A = 72.7%/57% (Not permitted to operate 7000 – 7025)

G = 66.6 %/40% (Not permitted to operate 7000 -7025)

 

Actually this club would not be adverse to allow General Class operators the same phone privileges as Extra and Advanced.  There is still a 25 KHz incentive at the bottom of the band for CW/digital.

 

This is put forward as a proposal from the CTRI Contest Group to the ARRL New England Division Director for his appropriate motion to be made at the next ARRL Board or Executive Committee meeting.

 

Respectfully submitted as approved by its membership at its meeting of October 22, 2011 – CTRI Contest Group

 

 

 

 

     

 

 

For Sale

Hi everyone,

I am selling my station and wanted to give the members first shot before posting anywhere else. The complete station is going, radios, towers, and ant and all misu stuff. I’m not sure when the next meeting is but if you’d like to come look around and see if there is anything you might like i can open the shack up after the meeting. The big idems are: FT-1000D, Ameratron 575, 50′ Rohn 45 with flat top with Alpha spid rotator & TH-5 Tribander, 35′ Rohn 25 with flat top Ham 4 rotator , TH3 Mark III tri-bander, all coax , Extra guy cables and more. If you can”t make it to the next meeting you can contact me at: billc230@nullcox.net with your phone number and I can give you a call.

Bill N1HRA

Meeting Notice — October 22, 2011

If you are familiar with the interactive meeting notice skip down to “Topics“.

This is an interactive meeting notice.

What, you may ask, is an interactive meeting notice?

As the phrase suggests, it is a meeting notice what requires interaction by the readers. For example: we need to have topics for presentation at the meeting; we need presenters; we need volunteers to provide lunch; we need to know who is coming to the meeting so the quantity of lunch portions may be determined, and so on.

This post will be updated as interactions (comments) are appended.

W1XX discusses construction of vertical dipole

Topics

  1. Received from W1XX: I would like to have the next CTRI meeting (Oct. 22 11 AM) at my house at which time I would appreciate the assistance of the club in re-raising the infamous 160 meter vertical which has been repaired and is ready to go up. Also an on-the-air demonstration of the simple vertical dipole which I described 2 meetings ago.  
  2. CQ WW RTTY contest report on W1DX, the club’s Multi-2  team effort.
  3. Discussion and possible vote on the following:
    1. Special (1 x 1) CTRI 20th anniversary callsigns to be used during 2012 NEQP.
    2. Certificate or QSL card to be issued.
  4. A PROPOSAL FOR USA 40 METER PHONE BAND EXPANSION
  5. NP3U in either the 2012 or 2013 WPX RTTY contest

Lunch provider:

Lunch fixins by: Hot dogs and hamburgers and soda will be served, courtesy of W1XX

Members who will attend:

W1PN, W1XX, NG1G, KA1GEU, W1WBB, KA1VMG, K1FUG, K3IU, NR1H,  KA1BNO, KB1VEZ, W1CTN, W1BYH, K1SD, K6NDV, K6ND